How does NexImage work?

August 15, 2006

NexImage uses a CCD imaging chip to capture streaming video of any solar system object. This video can easily be viewed as hundreds of individual images (frames) that can be digitally stacked to significantly reduce its inherent electronic noise and bring out the unseen fine detail (signal) hidden within the images.

The signal to noise ratio of a stacked, composite image is proportional to the square root of the number of frames combined. This means that stacking as few as 16 frames will reduce the grainy noise of the composite image by 4 times, while stacking as many 1600 frames will improve the image by 40 times.

NexImage uses software that analyzes each individual frame in a video clip and filters out those frames most affected (blurred) by poor atmospheric seeing. This post-processing leaves only the sharpest, clearest frames to be stacked and aligned into a high quality image.

NexImage is designed and optimized for taking images of solar system objects - the planets, the moon and the sun (observed with a proper solar filter). NexImage can also be used for terrestrial daytime observing using the real time video capture feature.